 "It sounds like a paradox, but the saddest funerals are those where no grief is shown. Grief is terrible, but it serves a purpose. Even when someone has died of old age, after a rich and fulfilled life, there is the sadness of saying goodbye, of the loss. The extent of the grief says something about the preciousness lost." That is how author, scientist and former politician Jan Terlouw started his Word of Comfort at the 2011 Concerto in Memoriam which was held on Sunday 5 June.
This annual remembrance concert in the Cemetery & Crematorium Westerveld memorial park - which forms part of 'the Facultatieve Group' - is visited by thousands of people each year. Apart from the Word of Comfort the special programme included a poetry reading, the Last Post and the performance of Benjamin Britten's 'Sinfonia da Requiem' by the internationally renowned Holland Symfonia orchestra. There was also a violin concert by Mendelssohn, with soloist Isabelle van Keulen of international fame.
With this now traditional Concerto in Memoriam, which was performed for the first time in 1994, Cemetery & Crematorium Westerveld aims to enable as many as possible to remember their loved ones. Entry to the concert is therefore free. In 2012, the Concerto in Memoriam will be held on Sunday 10 June.
|
